Azarenka cheated using the injury time out

The WTA Tour needs to be more stringent with these so called injury time outs players have during the grand slams. I believe Azarenka used the injury time out because she wanted to cool down and hope Sloane Stephens would have a bad game and it happened.

The problem with an injury is a player can fake it. Azarenka claimed she had both a knee problem and a rib problem to give her more time. It took 10 minutes for the injury time out. It is clear to me players are cheating sometimes using this as a strategy. The WTA needs to change this rule make it more consistent and tight so players can't abuse it.

She made a big mistake. She was probably going to win the semifinal anyway, but now in the final the crowd will be firmly against her (they would have been slightly anyway but now they will be in a huge way I predict, and given how emotional she is I could see her imploding under that).

Injury is part of the sport, in football you can use 3 substitutes in other sports like basketball you can switch players during the game.
I think it's fair that tennis lets players have a time out in case something hurts especially if it helps determining that the problem can worsen up if the players continues or it's something treatable in a matter of minutes.

So azi doesn't mention the injury at the end of match interview and she is cheating. But if she mentions it in the case she lost she is complaining. I saw the match. She did look like she was hurt. Why is the fact she admitted she was choking at the end mean she was not injured? And regardless does the timeout for injuries mean you automatically win? No. They still had to play. Stephens loss because she choked on all her service games. She held about one of her own serves the second set.

“Well I almost did the choke of the year,” Azarenka says during her on court interview. Oddly, despite being asked about why she took the MTO, Azarenka doesn’t give a medical reason. Simply says she felt overwhelmed and the nerves got to her.

“Well I almost did the choke of the year,” Azarenka says during her on court interview. Oddly, despite being asked about why she took the MTO, Azarenka doesn’t give a medical reason. Simply says she felt overwhelmed and the nerves got to her.

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MTO should definitely cover emotional distress - if she thought she was on the point of mental collapse and taking a timeout could help her, that's as relevant as if she was on the point of physical collapse, and that needed to be addressed.

MTO should definitely cover emotional distress - if she thought she was on the point of mental collapse and taking a timeout could help her, that's as relevant as if she was on the point of physical collapse, and that needed to be addressed.

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LOL. Can Lebron do this in basketball? What about the likes of Brady, Peyton Manning and Flacco? Can Jeter also do this in baseball?

The point being its a sports competition. Once you decide to get on that field or that court you don't take medical time outs for emotional BS. The only reason you should take MTO is for physical issues which Azarenka did not have.

Can't believe the excuses folks are coming up with. That dumb*ss girl was on the brink of losing the set and wanted to impede on her opponents rhythm. She has pulled this crap many of times, whether it be finding a bug on the court and using it as a distraction or faking an illness.

Petzschner had that match it was all his. Nadal is a cheat, a dirty cheat.

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Yoo-hoo!..Helllooo Fanboys!!! :
A simple favor: could you pleeeeeze take your Fed fanboy, Nadal-bashing elsewhere. It's bad enough what happened to Stephens without the hi-jacking attention away from what that calculating POS Azerenka did to her. Thanks.

MTO should definitely cover emotional distress - if she thought she was on the point of mental collapse and taking a timeout could help her, that's as relevant as if she was on the point of physical collapse, and that needed to be addressed.

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You've just opened the floodgates and given a pass to every calculating cheater who's in the midst of choking and seeking to stop their opponent's momentum dead in its tracks (i.e. cheating). Any "excuse card" could be played at any juncture during the match and esp. during crunch time.

She cheated big time!! After the match she was asked on court about where she was hurt no answer. She told the women that she needed a mental break. I think the WTA ans ATP should ban all medical timeouts. When I played I never not once needed a medical timeout. If I got hurt I played thur it. One time I twisted my ankle bad guess what I retired. Also bathroom breaks should only be allowed before u serve.

MTO should definitely cover emotional distress - if she thought she was on the point of mental collapse and taking a timeout could help her, that's as relevant as if she was on the point of physical collapse, and that needed to be addressed.

MTO should definitely cover emotional distress - if she thought she was on the point of mental collapse and taking a timeout could help her, that's as relevant as if she was on the point of physical collapse, and that needed to be addressed.

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I hope you're trolling. No sane person can believe this. This opens Pandora's Box to all types of silliness.

Another black eye for women's tennis. Like they needed it. But considering this came from the same person who considers those who complain about her screeching gamesmanship to be 'weak minded people', not surprised.

LOL. Can Lebron do this in basketball? What about the likes of Brady, Peyton Manning and Flacco? Can Jeter also do this in baseball?

The point being its a sports competition. Once you decide to get on that field or that court you don't take medical time outs for emotional BS. The only reason you should take MTO is for physical issues which Azarenka did not have.

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Uh yes Lebron can do this. Have you ever watched a basketball game before? If you want out of a game signal the coach and he can call a time out or you just signal to bring a sub at the next whistle. If your team has the ball you can all a time out yourself. In football, QB can just go over to the sideline and tell the coach to bring the backup for the next play. Pro team sports are not really your best examples of abusing this rule since players are taken out of the game when they are tired or not playing well . Plus time outs are called all the time when the momentum is starting to shift to the other team.

LOL. Can Lebron do this in basketball? What about the likes of Brady, Peyton Manning and Flacco? Can Jeter also do this in baseball?

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Why do you bring up other sports? In basketball, football, hockey, you can go in and out of the game repeatedly for any reason. Baseball no but there are huge chunks of time in the dugout and you can be replaced by another player at any time for any reason - and still win the game.

So the next time Lebron spends a quarter on the bench should we ask Can Roger do this in tennis??

You can't take MTOs because you were about to perform 'the choke of the year'. If I were the interviewer, I'd have said to her that's not a valid reason to take a 10 min break to take away momentum from their opponent. Very poor form.

Vika, you lost another fan today. Totally disgusted with your behavior when you should be setting an example for kid's to look up to.

Given all the facts...the MTO..she was treated for a rib injury, caused her breathlessness..it was very poor timing when she took it & everything else.
She wanted a timeout & took it. She communicated all this badly to the umpire and on-court interviewer. Vika did try to explain all this at the presser but English is not her first language & it didn't quite come off.
I certainly didn't like her explanation but that is also because I don't like her.
The umpire on the other hand has to believe her when she says she is injured.
Unfortunately this was not communicated to the public but he doesn't have to & maybe isn't allowed to inform them? This certainly caused problems later when she returned to the court & afterwards at the on-court interview.

The rules obviously need to be changed but she didn't cheat...she may
have taken longer than she was entitled but once she left the court to be treated it was always going to take longer than on-court treatment.

She used the rules but can't be held responsible for the extra delay, it was unfortunate for Sloane Stephens but she didn't seem as outraged as all the commentators!

The whole show was not great for tennis but Azarenka has lost a lot of fans in Oz & world-wide. It was bad PR for her & Na Li will be a crowd favourite for the final.

Hopefully the ITF, WTA & ATP clean up the rules so that play can be a little bit continuous.

She made a big mistake. She was probably going to win the semifinal anyway, but now in the final the crowd will be firmly against her (they would have been slightly anyway but now they will be in a huge way I predict, and given how emotional she is I could see her imploding under that).

So azi doesn't mention the injury at the end of match interview and she is cheating. But if she mentions it in the case she lost she is complaining. I saw the match. She did look like she was hurt. Why is the fact she admitted she was choking at the end mean she was not injured? And regardless does the timeout for injuries mean you automatically win? No. They still had to play. Stephens loss because she choked on all her service games. She held about one of her own serves the second set.

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Agree. Lol that everyone thinks they know better than the doctor what's going on with her body. She said she couldn't breathe, he said it was a rib. Sure, you can keep playing with a rib out, but you will lose. One easy adjustment and you're good to go. I'm sure the choke was more on her mind when she won, but that doesn't mean she wasn't hurt. And everyone saw the knee injury. She was playing through it anyway, but probably figured she might as well have it looked at too since she had already stopped play. I think the emotion and English as a second language made her not communicate well.

I know some people want to hate her no matter what. I want to like her and always end up rooting against her, but I think this thing is way overblown. People are upset because they wanted Sloane to be the big story, but that girl was totally losing and would only have won if Vika had played with her rib out. Sloane's young and doesn't have a champion's mentality yet, winners don't let mto's keep them from winning.

I hate "mob lynching" mentality in general, so this is gonna be painful to witness. But I like Li Na and I'm glad she'll be the one to benefit instead of Sriekapova. Also maybe this is the chance for Vika to toughen up and show that she can overcome her emotionality for a big win where she has to fight the crowd as well as her opponent.

I would also like to say, that some people have accused her of cheating just by leaving the court for the medical timeout.

To clarify, off court medical timeouts are perfectly legal, and used a lot more often than people think. Just about anytime it's a female player with an upper body problem (where the shirt/dress needs to be removed), they obviously won't do that on court.

Secondly, some people think she cheated by the medical timeouts lasted almost 10 minutes.

To clarify once again, having back to back medical timeouts on one changeover is perfectly legal. The player gets diagnosis time for the first injury (reasonable time) followed by up to 3 minutes for treatment, then diagnosis time for the second injury (reasonable time) followed by up to 3 minutes for treatment.

Cramping/Heat related illness is NOT a treatable condition for a medical timeout; however, a player can take changeover treatment on up to 2 complete changeovers for cramping/heat related illness.

When a player says he/she "can't breathe", play will be stopped for the trainer to check it out. If it's determined it's a treatable condition, a medical timeout can be taken. When a player says they "can't breathe", almost every time, in addition to the trainer, the doctor is going to come on court as well.

I know I have said some of this before, but I thought I could summarize it in one post.

In conclusion, I do agree that she stretched the rules to the absolute limit, it was probably complete BS, and yes I do think the rules should be modified. But, she didn't "cheat" technically.

She made a big mistake. She was probably going to win the semifinal anyway, but now in the final the crowd will be firmly against her (they would have been slightly anyway but now they will be in a huge way I predict, and given how emotional she is I could see her imploding under that).

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Azarenka is emotional about her own issues--she's self-centered and never gives the impression that she gives a crap about audiences' emotionalism.

Now that she's set to defend, she will likely pour it all on, using every legal trick in the book. Remember, this is her big chance to elevate her status above the rest of her generation (soy's Generation Suck, that is), who are of the scattered loon variety (Kvitova), in need of a shrink (Bartoli) or a complete zero at the majors (Wozniacki), so she will--must pull out all the stops..more than her contemporaries.

Given all the facts...the MTO..she was treated for a rib injury, caused her breathlessness..it was very poor timing when she took it & everything else.
She wanted a timeout & took it. She communicated all this badly to the umpire and on-court interviewer. Vika did try to explain all this at the presser but English is not her first language & it didn't quite come off.
I certainly didn't like her explanation but that is also because I don't like her.
The umpire on the other hand has to believe her when she says she is injured.
Unfortunately this was not communicated to the public but he doesn't have to & maybe isn't allowed to inform them? This certainly caused problems later when she returned to the court & afterwards at the on-court interview.

The rules obviously need to be changed but she didn't cheat...she may
have taken longer than she was entitled but once she left the court to be treated it was always going to take longer than on-court treatment.

She used the rules but can't be held responsible for the extra delay, it was unfortunate for Sloane Stephens but she didn't seem as outraged as all the commentators!

The whole show was not great for tennis but Azarenka has lost a lot of fans in Oz & world-wide. It was bad PR for her & Na Li will be a crowd favourite for the final.

Hopefully the ITF, WTA & ATP clean up the rules so that play can be a little bit continuous.

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Totally agree ... she abused the rule, but to say she cheated Sloane out of the match is silly. Azarenka was up a set and 5-4. She waited until the changeover to get treatment as she felt something was wrong during the ninth game.

I also agree that the rule needs to be adjusted ... taking multiple timeouts should not be allowed, or at least not consecutively. But unfortunately it is alllowed, and as many have mentioned the men abuse it as well as the women.

Like many of you, I was also pulling for Sloane. She's a great talent, and has a great future. But last night just wasn't her night. It's no surprise she made no issue of the delay either.

Agree. Lol that everyone thinks they know better than the doctor what's going on with her body. She said she couldn't breathe, he said it was a rib. Sure, you can keep playing with a rib out, but you will lose. One easy adjustment and you're good to go. I'm sure the choke was more on her mind when she won, but that doesn't mean she wasn't hurt. And everyone saw the knee injury. She was playing through it anyway, but probably figured she might as well have it looked at too since she had already stopped play. I think the emotion and English as a second language made her not communicate well.

I know some people want to hate her no matter what. I want to like her and always end up rooting against her, but I think this thing is way overblown. People are upset because they wanted Sloane to be the big story, but that girl was totally losing and would only have won if Vika had played with her rib out. Sloane's young and doesn't have a champion's mentality yet, winners don't let mto's keep them from winning.

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I agree that this has been overblown. But Sloane is a winner ... she beat Serena Williams and will have many more big wins in her future. She also didn't use this as an excuse for losing, so we should not either.